Armored jam-joint sucker-rod



ARMORED JAM- 101m SUCKER R00.

APPLICATION FILED OCT-1B. I917.

Patented Dec. 30

17106115011) Faeri ll! 'wzn #9: $6022 T/wmpsolz rrE s'rn us PAT rt.

ROBERT w. cum: Ann WILSIE A. score: THOMPSON, 015' LOS ANGELES,CALIFORNIA.

ARMORED JAM-JOINT SUGKER-ROD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 3Q, 11919.

Application filed October 18, 1917. Serial No. 197,360.

To all whom itmay concern:

Be it known thatwe, ROBERT W. GUNN and WILSIE A. Soo'rr THOMPSON, bothcitizens of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county ofLos Angeles and State of California, have invented new and usefulArmored Jam-Joint Sucker-Rods, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates more particularly to sucker rods for pumps usedin deep wells such as the oil wells in Southern California where thewells range from 1600 feet or less are at the required depth.

The sucker rod has a cage and a valve therein at the bottom and is madeup of sections of like length as the tubing sections.

Each sucker rod section has a threaded pin at one end and a threaded boxat the other end to receive the pin and each pin springs from anenlargement of the sucker rod equal in outside diameter to the outsidediameter of the box; and when the joint is screwed home the rim of thebox and end of the enlarged rod at the root of the pin are jammedtogether with great force so as to insure that the joint will not loosenand become unscrewed;

The tight jamming together of the rod sections at their joints isnecessary to prevent unscrewing and consequent parting of the joint.

The tendency of the rod to unscrew at any point not tightly jammed bytight screwing is very great, owing to various conditions of operationamong which the following may be particularly ointed out, as follows,that is to say, the suc er rod is operated by a jack or a walking'beamwhich reciprocates the rod up and down in the pump tubing about 10 to 20times per minute and owing to the great length of rod and the tendencyof the sucker to float, the rod which in common practice is cylindrical,will buckle or bend more or less and the enlargements at the joints willstrike upon and rub against the inside of the tubing, thus setting upvibration therein. Furthermore, the pump tubing may have some crooks init with which the rod enlargements may contact as they rise and fall ateach reciprocation. In addition to this is the lifting and seating ofthe valve which is usually a steel ball in a steel or iron cage.

The use of sucker rods of the character above described has been commonpractice for a long period of time including the thirty years last pastand during all that time said sucker rods have been subject to wear outat the joints where the box contacts with or rubs against the pumptubing. Whenever the box at any oint becomes worn so as to seriouslyimpair the strength of the joint the rod section thus wornbecomes unfitfor use and is discarded, although the body of the rod may be in perfectcondition. The discarding of such rods for this reason amounts to largesums every year and in addition to this loss, it sometimes occurs that arod will part in the well from breakage of a worn joint, which causesfurther loss and delay and a fishing job of greater or less durationduring which the well does not produce a profit but becomes a heavyburden of expense.

Our present invention is broadly new, basic, pioneer and primary in thatit is the first and only contrivance that has ever been discovered orput into use to remedy this great loss and expense that has always beenpresent and has ever ilfcreased with the increasing number and depth ofsaid wells ever since the oil industry had attained any greatproportions in Southern California; and yet it will be obvious in thefollowing disclosure that the remedy was always within easyreach of theoil producers and only needed to be discovered and pointed out to oilproducers; in order to enable them to eliminate the great loss, wasteand expense to which they had been subjected.

This invention, in its broad, basic, primary and pioneer character,consists simply in constructing each sucker rod section with a pinlonger than such sucker rod sections have heretofore had, and making forand applyiing to such pin a collar having an outside diameter greaterthan the outside diam: eter of the joint enlargement; said elongated pinbeing threaded at its tip to screw into the box so as to jam the collarbetween the shoulder of one section and the box of the other section,thus to enable the operatives to secure the joint against unscrewing byvibration just as completely as has been the case with the sucker rodsin well practice heretofore, as above set forth. 1

It is understood of course, that said collars are provided respectivelyat each of the intermediate joints of the rod between the top of the rodand the sucker of the pump at the lower end of the rod; and that saidcollars are to be constructed to contact with the rod only in anaccidental way and as a fender when the box or pin butt would otherwisestrike on the tubing and thus become worn. In a rod 4000 feet long therewill be some 200 of such collars, the friction and wear of which wouldbe very great if the collars were in contact with the walls of the pumptubing all the time. Therefore it is important that the collars shallonly be of a re uisite diameter, which while rojecting su ciently beyondthe box and pm butt, to.

protect the same from wear, will be of such diameter that the use of therod in pump tubing for which the sucker rod is adapted will be practicalfor pumping oil in the usual way.

Said collars may be made of 'malleable cast-iron or of such othermaterial as may be practicable and available, thus enabling theattendants to replace the collars from time to time as they may becomeworn and before injury to the box or other part of the joint, thusindefinitely prolonging the life of the sucker rod.

The sucker-rods have been reinforced at their joints in various ways toguard against wear and breakage and an object of this invention is toprovide a sucker-rod of this character having a joint which isreinforced and locked in a novel and superior manner for both strengthand wearing qualities and which is so constructed that the member whichtakes the wear and adds the strength to the rod is easily applied to andremoved from the olnt, and forms a lock to prevent loglsemngof the jointby vibration of the ro Another 'object is to stiffen the rod.

Other ObJEOtS are superior cheapnessof tions of a sucker-rod constructedin accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmental elevation of the joint of the rod shownin Fig. 1, the box and collar being shown in axial section.

Fig. 3 is an end view of the collar.

Fig. 4 is an end View of the box.

Fig. 5 is an end view of the pin and its butt.

Each section of the rod is of a single piece constructed with anintermediate body 1 and the butts 2, 3. One end of each rod section isprovided with a box 4 internally screwthreaded and the other end of saidsection is provided with an elongate pin 5 of greater length than thescrew-threaded seat 6 in the box into which said pin is to be screwed.All these parts are integral and form a single imit, The box is also rimcounter-bored as at 7 in the usual manner. The pin 5 is provided with ascrew-threaded tip 8 to fit the threaded bore of the box and to screwtightly thereinto. Preferably the main bod 9 of the pin is cylindricaland smooth. X collar 10 of slightly greater diameter than the butts forthe box and pin slidingly fits upon the pin and is of sufficient lengthto be jammed friction tight against the adjacent butts of two sucker rodsections when the box of one section is screwed onto the pin of theother section, when the collar is in place on such pin. Y

The end faces of the butts and the collar form frictional contacts witheach'othenthe corresponding circular traces 11 of which contacts arenormal to the axes of the pin and collar. Said pin and box and thebodies of the rod sections are all co-axial, so that when the collar isin placeon the pin, and the pin and box are screwed firmly together withtheir contact faces friction tight against each other the rod will bestraight and true and the joint is locked frictionally againstunscrewingby rod vibration.

. The root of the pin may have a frustoconical fillet as at 12 and theends of the collar are counterbored as at 13 to accommodate anyenlargement of this character.

. pose the joint having the worn col When the sections are tightlyscrewed together as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the collar forms a solidbrace between the butts of the rod sections. The collar forms a bracefor the pin between its root and the box and the construction of thejoint is calculated to take up vibration with less likelihood ofcrystallization thanin former constructions.

The collar may be made of cast-iron and may be of any desired length anddiameter, the pin and its box being correspondingly constructed. Nomachine work is required upon the collar except to make its ends formtrue joints with the box and the butt which supports the pin.

In practical use the cylindrical collars on the completed rod, being oflarger diameter than any other portion of the rod take all the wear thatoccurs through contact with the inside of the pump tubing, not shown;and in time some of'the collars will wear down, so as to requirereplacing with new collars.

To effect 'such replacement the rod is pulled sufficiently out from thetubing to exar and the box is unscrewed from the pin so that the collarmay be lifted oil of the pin and a new collar placed thereon instead.Then the box will be screwed home and the operation of the rod inthe'purnp may be continued.

The collar is adapted to be made of wood or paper fiber, raw hide orother durable wearing material which would not support a thread ofsuflicient strength to serve for coupling the rod sections and which isnot likely to wear the tubing so much as if made of material adapted tocouple the rod. The construction is comparatively cheap, as the box andthe pin require no more threading than with the old style rod, and thecollar may be made of material having superior qualities for preventionof destruction of the rod and tubing by wear.

It is understood that this invention is not in the nature of ananti-friction device such as has been proposed for the joints ofrevolving core barrels-used in core drilling; for in such devices therotation of the barrel is always against the resistance of the rotatingtool cutting the face of the rock at the end of the hole and suchrotation and resistance positively prevents unscrewing of the joint, andin such case'the sleeve or bearing ring is anti-'frictionally mountedand cannot be jammed between the box and pin butt and such device is notadapted for and is nonusable for the purposes of this invention.

'We claim:

1. A sectional sucker rod for deep well pumps set forth in which eachsection of the .sucker rod is of a single piece constructed with anintermediate body and with butts at the ends of such body and in whichone end of each rod section 1s provided with a box internallyscrew-threaded, and the other end of said section is provided with anelongated pin of greater length than the screw threaded seat in the boxinto which such pin is to be screwed; the pin being provided with ascrew-threaded tip to fit the screwthreaded bore of such box, and toscrew tightly thereinto; and a collar of greater diameter. than thebutts, which collar fits upon the pin and is of sufiicient length to bejammed friction tight against the adjacent butts of two sucker rodsections when the box of one section is screwed onto the pin of theother section when the collar is in place on said pin; the collar beingalso of such external dimensions and form as not to interfere withthecustomary functions of the sucker rod nor to contact, with the usualpump tubing except as a fender in an accidental way, substantially asset forth.

2. A sucker rod coupling comprising two members having end enlargements,one of said enlargements having an internal screw threaded socket andthe other having a pin portion, the pin end of which is screw threadedfitting within the screw-threaded socket of the other portion, and abeveled shoulder at the other end; and a cylindrical collar with roundededges and being of relatively larger diameter than the end enlargements;said collar being clamped between said beveled shoulder and the socketedportion.

3. In a sucker rod adapted to reciprocate the sucker of a deep wellpump, the joint set forth comprising an enlarged end of one section ofsuch sucker-rod provided with an internally screw-threaded socket; anenlarged end of another section of such suckerrod provided with .a pinhaving an external thread and adapted to screw into the screw threadedsocket; and a collar around the pin and slidable thereon, and adapted tobe jammed friction tight between the enlarged ends of said rod sections;said collar being slightly larger in diameter than the enlarged ends ofsaid sections, substantially as set forth, for the purpose of taking thewear which heretofore has been destructive to such end enlargements ofsucker rods.

4. A sucker-rod comprising a body, a butt and a pin, a second body, abutt and a box adapted to screw onto the pin; said pinbeing cylindricaland being threaded at its tip and smooth between its tip and the butt;and a collar of greater diameter than the butt fitting the smoothportion of the pin and jammed between the butts when the box is screwedhome upon the pin, said collar forming a friction tigh t brace for thepin between its root and t e ,box.

5. A sucker-rod comprisin a body, a butt and a pin, a second body, a uttand a box adapted to screw onto the pin; said pin being cylindrical andbeing threaded.- at its 5 tip and smooth between its tip and the butt;and a collar of greater diameter than the butt fitting the pin andjammed between the butts when the box is screwed home upon the pin; saidcollar forming a friction tight 10 brace for the pin between its rootand the its root and said 00 lar being conformed to the fillet.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands at Los Angeles,California, 15 this 11th day of October, 1917.

ROBERT W. GUNN. WIIJSIE A. SCOTT THOMPSON.

Witness:

JAMES R. TOWNSEND.

